Rumour: BioWare EA To Make Military FPS

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Update: There’s now no mention of “BioWare” on the ads, instead just “Montreal”. Which could well be EA Montreal, of course. Who, the story now becomes, look likely to be making a military FPS.

The best kinds of PC rumours are the ones based on job adverts. Which is why VG247’s ears pricked up at the sound of BioWare posting for a concept artist to work on a “Military-genre Franchise”. Another ad asks for a Lead “Designer for Military-genre FPS”. So what could BioWare be creating?

That’s a failure of communication not game design. The Soldier is the least interesting class when you start to really get into the combat. They had great combat design they just never convinced most people to give it a try,

I think a lot of that was down to the power implementation in ME being a bit crap and the armour restrictions. If I hadn’t known that things had been much improved for ME2, I probably would have gone for the soldier class again too.

Playing as a soldier can be fun too. It makes the battles a bit more tactical as you have to position your allies and use their powers a bit more carefully and then exploit the opportunities they create for you. I don’t see why is that a bad thing.

Isn’t role playing the most important part of an RPG? Mass Effect 2 got rid of the terrible thing called inventory, mixed the combat with an FPS and used a really fluent leveling system which allows you to develop your character’s powers without making you over or underpowered even for a moment… I don’t see why wouldn’t you call it an RPG.

A lot of people mistake the mechanistic event resolution devices of P&P RPGs as what makes something a ‘true’ PC RPG. It’s a kind cultural hangover (new mediums traditionally ape the old before finding their feet) coupled with a degree of ‘things were better when we had walls of text and 200 hours long games’ snobbery thrown in for good measure.

@mlaskus
“without making you over or underpowered even for a moment”
– exactly. In other words, letting you “role-play” without any actual effect on the game-play.
(And the fact that 1’s inventory system sucked (along with whole equipment system, but that’s another story) doesn’t justify removing it entirely.)

They’re doing a remake of Commando (you know, the old C64 classic) packed with “meaningful choices”, ” dialogue”, “epic storyline” and “RPG-elements”. It’s going to be packed with action and slightly more challenging than the original so expect the epic storyline to be about 5 minutes long. Should be released by end of 2015.

As I have pointed out on VG247, the above job ads are listed for EA Montreal, which is not Bioware Montreal, although both studios share the same office space. There is a seperate list of job ads for Bioware Montreal which is different from the list for EA Montreal.

I’m really relieved that RPS actually has looked on the linked job ads. It seems that VG247 and many other sites linking to them don’t bother that there is no mention of Bioware in these ads. That makes me a little wonder about the quality of journalism on these sites, where the hype seems more important than checking facts.

Its not the FPS itself thats tired, its the way its being done. STALKER still feels fresh despite it being the same gameplay/mechanics/engine reused three times over. Its also a travesty of underambition that only BiS even attempt milsim games as well.

So one of the biggest publishers on the planet is going to make a game in one of the most popular genres on the planet. Shocking. What’s next? Activision announces a console game? Or Blizzard announcing that they expect to be profitable next quarter? ;)

Maybe it’s better this way. More casual people can play it like a straight up shooter and more hardcore people can explore the depth of the combat system, because there really is a lot there. Play it on high difficulty settings as for example an Adept or Sentinel and you’ll see

I have a dream that room shall one day be discovered in the fertile fields and valleys of gaming even for the military first-person shooter. That propaganda reveling in the emulation of the execution of the execrable commands of tyranny shall wash over and mould our children as water does pebbles in the sand. I have a dream today.

Sad news. When EA purchased Bioware (touted last independent studio) it was clear to everyone the good old studio will be thing of the past. But how much will they lose their way was unimaginable back than. From ME2 de-rpgising, taking over mythic studios, to DAO2 becoming a joke. Now military FPS ?

Bioware are loosing their way and simply becoming generic EA game publishing studio

Mass Effect 2 is not de-rpgized. It actually improved upon the role playing aspects. It’s the first RPG where you can really be ‘impulsive’. Importance of the NPC’s have seen the biggest improvement since Baldur’s Gate 2. The moral choices were not that distinctly good and evil anymore (Legion, Mordin’s side quests)

DA:O2 is not a joke. You are purely basing that on the thing that the game’s protagonist is pre-defined (because that is the only thing I’ve heard people complaining about I assume you are doeing it too). But, Planescape Torment has a predifned character too, and that one is hailed as their most awesome game… And DA:O is quite similar to the Baldur’s Gate series, and that one was developed under EA jurisdiction.

In other words, they haven’t changed much.

Oh, I just noticed. Baldur’s Gate 2 is actually very similar to Mass Effect 2 in terms of pacing. Side missions are more important while the antagonist is less important. In the first game of either series, you spent most of the time hunting your enemies and destroying their operations, in both second games of the series, you spend most of your time ensuring that you can hunt your enemies. (that’s why I like the first ones of both series better in terms of story)

I constantly see shooter apologists trying to justify ME2 as an RPG. Just get over it: its a third person shooter.

Sure, its got the weakest of RPG residue and a dialogue system that lets you chose one of two directions for a cutscene to take, but that doesnt mean its an rpg. It just has the elements shoehorned in as an afterthought to all the shooterising ME2 added in. Im fully expecting a crappy multiplayer mode for ME3.

90% of the entire game is spent behind cover shooting enemies. Its a cover based third person shooter. Even the “character driven” side missions are almost entirely dominated by shooting.

I just wish people would drop the denial and accept that its a gears clone with a bit of RPG lip service, not an ACTUAL RPG. Heck, ME1 wasnt even an RPG, it was a shooter/RPG hybrid. ME2 just took that hybrid formula, kicked out most of the RPG and added in a truckload of shooter staples.